Mare Spumans and Mare Undarum

On this evening, two days past full moon and with favorable libration on the eastern portion of the Moon, I chose two irregular maria targets for sketching. Mare Spumans was completely visible while Mare Undarum was only partly exposed beyond the terminator.Although I have examined these little ancient "lakes" in the past this has been my first attempt to capture them on paper. Both are surrounded by bright, densely cratered upland and are close enough to Mare Crisium to be within its eject blanket and basin rings.

This is a very attractive region of the Moon for sketchers with craters Langrenus and Messier and Messier A nearby and Mare Crisium just to the north. I purposely kept these features out of my view to focus on lesser observed targets. In addition to the maria subjects, craters : Webb (22 km.), Apollonius (53 km.), and Firmicus (56 km.) provided eye catching targets across the view.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9"x 12", white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased just slightly using my scanner.

Thanks, I am in my comfort zone on these warm summer nights with sketching. For me it takes concentration and being relaxed. Distant packs of coyotes identifying their locations with respect to one another added to the enjoyment.--Mike, I have been sorry to hear you have not had very good summer weather for observing - hopefully that will soon improve.

Here is another sketch I was able to make a few days later of crater Posidonius at sunset.

Crater Posidonius at Sunset

On this night I watched the sunset terminator creep slowly toward ring-plain craterPosidonius while I sketched the crater and other features on the floor of Mare Serenitatis. Posidonius (96 km.) is an old upper Imbrian era impact remnant. Its age is underlined by the way shadows penetrate the rim at numerous points betraying impact damage there. The highest part of the rim is on the terminator side of this crater. Sunlight was still reaching Posidonius A and other high points on ridges including one on the inner ring. Beyond this crater to the west and south the great serpentine ridge could be seen in bestlight. This ridge is made up of dorsa Smirnov and dorsa Lister.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9"x 12", white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased just slightly using my scanner.